A compilation of daily news articles from around the United States about deaths (including both people and animals) that appear to occur in the context of a past or present intimate relationship, focusing on 2009-present. (NOTE: this blog is limited to incidents that appear in the media and are captured by our search terms. We recognize this is not an exhaustive portrayal of all deaths resulting from intimate violence.)
When is society going to realize intimate violence makes victims of us all?

Friday, February 25, 2011

ELLENWOOD, Ga. -- A 21-year-old man has been arrested and charged with giving a 15-year-old boy a weapon.Police said the teen used the weapon to kill his 16-year-old girlfriend.

The victim's mother said the charges are appropriate."A lot of people get mad, but unless you put something in their hand, they can't go do it," Julianna Martinez told Channel 2’s Tom Jones. "I would be responsible if I had handed someone the means to do it."

Robert Bethune lives next door to 15-year-old Kevin Kosturi in Ellenwood.According to police records, Kosturi told Bethune he needed a gun because someone was threatening him.

Court records indicate that Kosturi used that weapon to shoot Angel, a girl he once dated, in the chest. Bethune now faces several charges, including furnishing a weapon to a person under 18, and contributing to the delinquency of a minor. Bethune’s pregnant girlfriend cried in court as a judge said denied him bond because of the seriousness of the charges and the additional injury or death the weapon could have caused.

Jones also learned Kosturi will be tried as an adult. He faces murder, tampering with evidence, possession of a weapon by a person under 18 and making false statements charges.Court records indicate he shot Angel as the two sat at a makeshift fort built in a wooded area near his home. The records indicate that Angel told Kevin he wouldn't shoot her and that’s when he did.

According to the records, Kevin first told police a stranger shot her. He then said she accidentally shot herself. Officers said the teen later confessed his role and showed police where he threw the .38 revolver in a nearby creek.

Angel's mother said Kevin and her daughter no longer dated. Martinez said Kevin had threatened her daughter before.

"If somebody tells you they're going to shoot you, run. Run and tell somebody. It's not the kind of thing that you hide and deal with it on your own," she said outside of court in hopes of helping other teens who may be in violent relationships.

"Tell your mother. Tell somebody," said Martinez.

Martinez said her daughter was fun-loving and beautiful, on the inside and out. "She was kind and she was loving, and it just hurts that she's not here to live out her life."